Islamic world victimized by the West

Not all versions of this ideology - variously called Islamism or radical Islam - are violent. But at the core of even the peaceful ones, such as that espoused by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, is the idea that the Islamic world has been victimized by the West and must defend itself.

Even before the United States invaded Iraq, stoking rage, polls in Muslim countries revealed support for Osama bin Laden and for al-Qaeda’s aims, if not its methods. If such thinking were to triumph in major Muslim countries beyond Iran - say, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - violent extremists would command vast new stores of personnel, explosives and funds.
Joshua Muravchik in JakartaGlobe vom 30. Juni 2009, ursprünglich in The Washington Post